Today, gensets with biodiesel- or natural gas-powered engines, are one of the most widely-used technologies in the distributed generation market, whether for emergency applications, prime or continuous power, CHP and so on. The global market keeps on growing and in line with two reports published by Navigant Research, global installed capacity in diesel gensets could grow from 62.5 GW in 2015 to 103.7 GW in 2024. Natural gas gensets are forecast to grow from 12.9 GW in 2015 to over 27.1 GW in 2024. Despite the predominance of diesel gensets, the line between both is increasingly blurred given the growing popularity of dual-fuel diesel-gas gensets. This article covers some of the main conclusions of these reports.

Reciprocating engines represent the most widespread and mature technology for any type of energy generation, from small portable gensets to larger industrial engines that power generators of several megawatts. Reciprocating engine-based gensets can be grouped together to form power plants, even though their primary use is for distributed generation.

As a source of emergency, continuous or prime power, diesel gensets have historically been the most popular for energy generation applications, in almost any power range and are positioned to continue this steady growth in most regions and power classes. Read more…